I don't talk about it, but I'm unable to hide it, thanks to my wife. I kept the whole costume thing quiet for YEARS at work, but once she started and put up pictures of us in costumes around her office, that shit went right out the window.

I don't exactly hide it, but I don't run around telling everyone, either. If someone asked me "Do you cosplay?", I'd say yes, but I wouldn't be the first person to bring it up, I guess. I also keep all of my convention pictures off of my facebook page. All of my friends and family know, but if you went up to an acquaintance/casual friend they wouldn't know I cosplayed. I'm not ashamed of it or anything, because I love it and it's a great hobby, but since it isn't something everyone knows about, I'd rather not have to explain it 5 million times.

I openly shared it at work and on my Facebook but it's a secret to everyone else I know and have. Which is probably why nearly all the old classmates that friended me on Facebook deleted me lol. It's dumb too they all found me as a group and it's like "hey there he is cool!" and then -finds out goes to anime cons and has costume- "oh no he's not normal go away!" pbtttt. But they have been replaced by new anime con going friends I've met.

Kinda. The only ones who know I cosplay are the immediate family, friends who are cosplayers/anime fans, coscom members, and active dA watchers. I wouldn't bring cosplay up unless I was sure somebody was talking specifically about it.

I used hide it from everyone except my closest friends (including internet friends) and family because well someone has to drive me to cons. But I do not particularly mind if someone in my grade finds out about it.
Nowadays I just upload cosplay stuff on Instagram and Facebook where everyone can see. And besides, if they say something about it I can't help it. It's not what people consider "normal" whatever the hell normal is anyways.
If I try to hide it from anyone, it would be my mom. She hates it with passion. She doesn't even want to talk about it unless to use it as a counterattack in our arguments. I go on these kinds of website in private even though they are completely age appropriate. And I even hide my cosplay stuff deep in my closet shelf hidden by bunch of blankets. Since I cannot drive and I've gotten my friends into this whole cosplay/nerd business, sometimes she has no choice to drive me to cons, but when I return from the con, in the car she would not stop yelling at me like "Look at your life and look at your choices."
So, I instead bring it up on purpose to get her used to it. I can't keep hiding in a mouse hole and get my feelings hurt just to do one thing I like.
Basically right now we are hurting each other's feelings probably but that's how equality works...in a way.

TL; DR If anyone says anything bad about cosplay, ignore them. If anyone starts hurting your feelings because of cosplay, stand up against them. Because there is nothing wrong with cosplay and all the geeky jazz.

I sort of hide it from co-workers mainly due to being able to get off of work. If I tell them I was going to a con, I probably wouldn't be able to take the day off. I don't talk about it a lot with non-cosplayers, but if they ask I don't hide it

I hide from my peers at my University or well I did. I tried to blend in and fit in because I want to be taken more seriously. Then after having my classmates talk about how quite and weird I am decided to say fuck it and not hide my cosplaying at con and love of anime. Also it was kinda hard to hide when I all but yelled 'yes!!' while running out of a canceled class toward the bus stop on a con friday. . .

From my family? Nope. My family isn't "normal" anyways, my mom is covered in tattoo's, so. I cosplay with my very best friends, and my other BFF's know about it, and like to see pics of us, and completely 100% support us, and finds it cool(I have great friends, A+).

From aquantenses? Yes. On my facebook? Yes. I don't like talking about anime in general in school, at all. It makes me feel awkward, aha.

So I don't hide it from my close friends and family, but I do hide it from everyone else(the worst is seeing a classmate at a con that you aren't friends with/barely ever talk to *shivers*)

I am in the process of a controlled release with this hobby. I have a multitude of interests including cosplay. However I realized that I enjoy doing this late last year and want to make connections in this hobby and I have to share it so I can make those connections.

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Adlez-AxeL: "I'm not weird, I'm gifted"

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort."

I don't really hide it I just made a different account and a cosplay page to not like spam them with pictures and whatnot. I even shared my page onto my personal account and told them that if they really wanna know what I'm up to then they can like my page to see it. Seeing how my cosplay facebook is, I'm glad I made a new account because a lot of people would be confused! xD Most of them already know what I'm up to and honestly if someone I know doesn't like it I wouldn't care. I'm not doing it to please them and I won't stop what I'm doing.

It's not something I really bring up would be more accurate for me. I don't try to hide it but I don't go around talking about it unless it pops up. It was a little weird at first when my family found out I cosplay and they thought it was kind of weird. But then when you have some really nice pictures or say hey this got me to do so and so for that thing now they're pretty cool about it and think it's neat I do it. But yeah places like class I don't bring it up. But then that really doesn't last long when con comes around and I'm walking around campus in my costume anyways. Oh well.

My family know about it, but we don't talk about it really. They dont encourage it nor do they really scorn it. They just urge me to think about paying my bills and to stress less, because cosplay does suck a lot out of funds and man is it stressful!

Everyone at work knows and either loves it or doesn't mind it. We're talking country/farm folk, often religious, sport and soap opera loving people. It makes me stand out. So I've never tried to hide it from them. I do hide it from my clients though; I don't think many people would like to know that their doctor is a cosplayer. But that's probably the same for most professions.

When meeting people, unless they're a cosplayer too I don't shove it in their faces that I cosplay. It's something that comes up later when I get to know them better.

Now, there are people who I don't talk to it about at work because I know they wouldn't care and would be uninterested in that kind of conversation, but I wouldn't call that "hiding" it. If they ever brought it up I wouldn't lie and I talk to others about it who would be interested.

I don't think I could call anyone a friend if I had to hide part of myself from them. To me friend is a word that denotes a greater connection than "associate" or "co-worker" or "acquaintance". I can imagine having a friend who was not interested in costumes, but that's MUCH different than having to hide it from them. Having to hide something in order to be "friends" is not what being a friend is in the first place.

I suppose it doesn't come naturally to me to cultivate "friends" just to get things from them. If I had to "lead a double life" just to gain some kind of advantage and be hurt if the truth came out, I don't think I could do it, that would be too much effort.

There's one truth in my life I'm apprehensive about telling, but it's something that people are killed for so don't really feel too bad about that. But every single person I would actually call a friend does know.

I take a lot of pride in my sewing and my crafting. If the subject of hobbies comes up in conversation I will readily admit to being a cosplayer. Though I refer to it as costuming, since it's a more well known term, and also because I've done costume work for my college drama department and for clubs I was in in high school. People usually respond really well, since it's a skill not everyone has.